You can usually sense when a veterinary team is running low on energy, even before there’s any noticeable change in performance.

The work is still getting done, patients are being cared for and clients are being looked after. But the atmosphere feels different. People who would normally help one another without being asked are concentrating on getting through their own responsibilities. Questions that would usually receive a helpful response are met with a sigh or a short answer. Minor inconveniences seem to cause more frustration than they did a few weeks earlier. It’s not necessarily that the team has stopped caring or that their standards have changed. They may simply have less patience and emotional capacity available to deal with the normal demands of working closely together.

Leading a tired team requires a slightly different approach. The challenge isn’t just maintaining productivity, but recognising how fatigue can influence the way people interact and preventing those small changes from becoming bigger problems.

When Tiredness Starts to Affect Teamwork

Veterinary practices rely heavily on cooperation. A busy day only runs smoothly when people share information, anticipate what their colleagues need and are willing to help when something unexpected happens.

Much of that cooperation happens without anyone formally asking for it. A nurse notices reception is struggling with several arriving clients and offers to help. A veterinarian takes a moment to explain a treatment plan clearly so the nursing team can confidently answer questions. A receptionist recognises that the hospital is under pressure and checks the best time to follow up on a non-urgent request. These everyday interactions make an enormous difference to how a practice functions.

When people are tired, however, they can become more focused on their immediate responsibilities and less aware of what’s happening around them. It’s not always a conscious decision. They may simply have less capacity to notice when someone else needs assistance. Over time, this can create frustration. One team member feels they’re constantly helping others but receiving little support in return. Another feels they’re being interrupted when they’re already struggling to keep up. Someone makes a comment that would normally be brushed aside, but this time it becomes an argument.

None of these situations necessarily indicates a serious team problem. But if leaders don’t recognise what’s happening, small frustrations can start to influence relationships and the way people work together.

Don’t Confuse a Difficult Day with a Difficult Person

One of the challenges of leading a tired team is recognising when changes in behaviour are related to fatigue and when they indicate an issue that needs to be addressed.

Imagine a normally approachable senior nurse responding sharply when a colleague asks for assistance. The response isn’t appropriate, and the colleague may understandably feel upset. It would be easy to conclude that the senior nurse needs an attitude adjustment. But perhaps they’ve spent the morning managing several hospital patients, supporting a less experienced team member and dealing with an unexpected emergency. That context doesn’t excuse the response, but it should influence how the leader approaches it. Rather than immediately turning the situation into a formal performance issue, a brief private conversation may be more useful. Acknowledge that the day has been difficult, explain the impact of the interaction and find out what’s happening.

There is an important balance here. We don’t want to create an environment where tiredness becomes an acceptable reason to speak poorly to colleagues. Equally, we don’t want to treat every moment of frustration as evidence of a broader performance problem.

What matters is recognising patterns. If someone who is usually patient and cooperative has an unusually difficult afternoon, that’s different from someone who repeatedly speaks disrespectfully to colleagues, regardless of workload.

Good leadership involves understanding the difference and responding appropriately.

The Leader’s Mood Becomes Part of the Working Environment

It’s worth considering what happens when the practice leader is also running low on energy.

Practice managers and owners are often dealing with their own pressures while supporting everyone else. They’re responding to staffing issues, managing client concerns, making decisions and trying to keep the business functioning. When they’re tired, their communication can become more abrupt without them necessarily realising it.

A team member asks a reasonable question and receives a frustrated response. Someone raises a concern and is told, “We’ll deal with it later,” but the conversation never happens. A mistake that would normally be handled calmly attracts a stronger reaction than the situation warrants. The leader may move on quickly, but the team doesn’t always forget the interaction. People begin to hesitate before asking questions. Small problems go unmentioned because nobody wants to add to the manager’s workload. Team members may start discussing frustrations with one another rather than raising them with the person who can help resolve them.

This is where a leader’s behaviour can have a disproportionate impact. You don’t need to be endlessly positive or pretend that a difficult day isn’t difficult. In fact, teams generally recognise when a leader is being genuine.

What matters is remaining approachable and consistent, particularly when things aren’t going smoothly. Sometimes that means recognising your own frustration before responding. Sometimes it means acknowledging that you were short with someone and correcting it. And sometimes it means being honest that you’re having a demanding day while still making it clear that people can come to you when they need support.

Those small actions help maintain trust when everyone’s tolerance is being tested.

Pay Attention to the Conversations That Aren’t Happening

When a team is tired, one of the first things to disappear can be the informal communication that normally helps the practice run well. People become more transactional. They exchange the information required to complete a task but have fewer of the conversations that help them understand what’s happening across the practice.

A receptionist may stop checking whether the hospital needs assistance because previous requests have been met with frustration. A nurse may avoid asking a veterinarian for clarification because they appear too busy. A team member may decide not to raise a minor concern because it doesn’t seem important enough.

Individually, these decisions can appear insignificant. Collectively, they can create gaps in communication and cooperation that make the day more difficult for everyone. This is why leaders need to look beyond whether tasks are being completed.

Are people still comfortable asking questions? Are they sharing information freely? Are team members willing to offer assistance, or have they become increasingly protective of their own responsibilities?

You don’t need a formal team engagement survey to recognise these changes. Often, the most useful information comes from observing everyday interactions and making time for conversations with people across the practice.

It’s also worth remembering that silence doesn’t necessarily mean everything is fine. Sometimes it means people have stopped expecting anything to change.

Help the Team Reconnect with Each Other

When the atmosphere in a practice becomes strained, it’s tempting to organise something designed to improve morale. A team lunch, morning tea or social activity can certainly be appreciated, but it won’t necessarily resolve the frustrations people are experiencing during the working day. If nurses feel unsupported by reception, or reception feels that the clinical team doesn’t appreciate the pressure they’re under, a shared lunch is unlikely to change much on its own.

A more useful starting point may be helping people understand what’s happening in other parts of the practice. For example, if tensions have developed between reception and the nursing team, bring a few people together to talk through where the difficulties are occurring. You may discover that reception is being asked to provide clients with information they don’t have, while nurses are frustrated by interruptions during patient care. Neither group is necessarily being unreasonable. They may simply be seeing different parts of the same problem.

Working through a practical solution together can improve cooperation far more effectively than reminding everyone to be supportive. It also helps when leaders acknowledge the everyday examples of teamwork that are going well. Not through constant praise, but by noticing when someone has made another person’s job easier or helped the practice manage a difficult situation.

When people feel their contribution is recognised, they’re often more willing to continue making that effort.

Don’t Expect the Team to Find Its Own Way Back

There can be a tendency to assume that once a busy period passes, the team will naturally return to its usual rhythm. Sometimes that happens. But when small frustrations have been building for weeks or months, the effects can remain long after the immediate pressure has eased. A team member who felt unsupported may still be reluctant to offer help. Two colleagues who had several difficult interactions may continue avoiding one another. People may have become accustomed to communicating less or keeping concerns to themselves.

These patterns don’t always resolve simply because the workload becomes more manageable. Leaders may need to deliberately rebuild some of the habits that have slipped. That could mean revisiting how the team communicates during busy periods, addressing unresolved tensions or making time to discuss what’s been difficult and what could work better next time.

The conversation doesn’t need to become a major exercise. In many practices, a straightforward discussion about what’s been happening and what people need from one another can be enough to begin improving the situation. The important thing is not to overlook the effect that a prolonged demanding period can have on working relationships.

Staying Focused Means Looking After How the Team Works Together

When energy levels are low, maintaining team focus isn’t simply about reminding people of their responsibilities or encouraging them to stay motivated. It’s also about protecting the working relationships and everyday behaviours that allow a veterinary practice to function effectively.

A team can be clinically capable, experienced and committed to patient care, yet still struggle when patience, communication and cooperation begin to deteriorate. Leaders have an important role in recognising those early changes, responding fairly when frustrations arise and being mindful of how their own behaviour influences the working environment.

That doesn’t mean overlooking inappropriate behaviour or expecting everyone to be cheerful throughout a difficult day. It means understanding that people don’t always interact at their best when they’re tired, and that those interactions still need attention. When your team is running low on energy, it may be worth looking beyond how much work is getting done and considering how people are working together to get it done. Because maintaining a productive practice isn’t only about what your team achieves. It’s also about how well they can continue to rely on one another when things get difficult.

How CCG Can Support Your Practice

When a team has been working under pressure for an extended period, changes in communication, cooperation and workplace relationships can be difficult to address from within the practice. CCG’s veterinary business consultants can help you identify the factors affecting team dynamics and work through practical approaches to strengthening communication, leadership and everyday teamwork.

Whether you’re dealing with ongoing workplace tensions, challenges between teams or simply want to create a more positive and productive working environment, our consultants can provide support tailored to your practice.

Visit www.ProvetCCG.com.au or contact our team to discuss how CCG can support your leadership team and wider practice.

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